“Better” was not quite could enough for the University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team on Saturday afternoon, as UC Santa Barbara held off the Warriors, 77-71, in Big West Conference action at Goleta, Calif.
A crowd of 1,427 at the Thunderdome watched Ajay Mitchell score a game-high 23 points with five assists and Josh Pierre-Louis add 16 points and four steals as the Gauchos snapped a three-game losing streak and improved to 14-11 overall and 7-8 in league play. Freshman guard Tom Beattie scored a team-high 15 points with six rebounds and three assists for UH, which had its three-game win streak snapped and fell to 15-12, 7-8.
UCSB and Hawai’i are now tied for sixth place in the conference standings, but the Gauchos are considered the higher seed for now by virtue of them sweeping the two-game regular season series. UCSB won in Honolulu, 78-61, on Jan. 25.
The Warriors played better this time around, even taking an 11-point lead (34-23) late in the first half. But it wasn’t quite enough, as the Gauchos chipped away in the second half and eventually took the lead for good on Mitchell’s floater with 1:24 remaining to make it 72-69. UH cut it to 72-71 on Beattie’s layup 17 seconds later, but that would be it for Hawai’i’s scoring as a turnover and blocked shot killed the next two possessions.
“It’s tough, because offensively, we’re coming on,” Warriors coach Eran Ganot said in his post-game radio interview. “You see 51 (percent) from the (field), 55 (percent) from 3(-point line), 88 (percent) from the (free throw) line … and you lose the game. Our defense was really good to start the (second) half … We had been able to hang our hats on defensive rebounding, and it wasn’t there for us today. So at the end of the day, the discipline and the possession battle — they had more offensive rebounds and less turnovers, and that was a big difference in a (two-)possession game.”
UCSB started quickly, jumping out to a 9-0 lead but Hawai’i answered with its own 10-0 run to lead 10-9 on Justin McKoy’s 3-pointer six minutes in.
The teams then traded baskets for awhile, until Bernardo da Silva’s layup ignited a 14-5 surge capped by his own lefty hook shot to push the Warriors ahead, 34-23, with just under a minute remaining before halftime.
UH enjoyed a 34-25 lead at the break, thanks largely to 6-of-12 shooting from 3-point range, and still led, 42-34, after Noel Coleman’s outside jumper with 15:39 remaining in the game. But Mitchell answered with a 3-pointer two minutes later to ignite a 12-4 surge that erased the deficit as Jason Fontenet scored on an inside jumper to tie it at 46-46 eight minutes in.
After more back-and-forth — there were 11 lead changes overall by the three-minute mark — Mitchell finally made the eventual go-ahead basket with 1:24 remaining.
Despite Mitchell’s 23 points and Pierre-Louis’ 16, Ganot said the Warriors did a decent job making them earn their scoring opportunities.
“We tried to make those guys work on both ends, and you feel like you’re doing a good job there,” Ganot said. “But then there’s (our) discipline, our shot selection, the pick-6’s … and you need some easy baskets to break your way, and then you can make the tougher shots. So that part is disappointing, obviously.”
Hawai’i now returns home facing a rare Thursday bye before playing host to Long Beach State on Saturday.
BIG WEST STANDINGS
- UC Irvine (12-2)
- UC San Diego (11-3)
- UC Davis (10-4)
- Long Beach State (9-5)
- CSUN (8-7)
- UC Santa Barbara (7-8)
- HAWAI’I (7-8)
- UC Riverside (7-8)
- Cal State Bakersfield (5-10)
- Cal State Fullerton (4-10)
- Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (0-14)